Abbey of Echternach

The facade of the Abbey of Echternach

49°48′50″N 06°25′21″E / 49.81389°N 6.42250°E

The Abbey of Echternach is a Benedictine monastery in the town of Echternach, in eastern Luxembourg. The abbey was founded in the 7th century by St Willibrord, the patron saint of Luxembourg. For three hundred years, it benefited from the patronage of a succession of rulers, and was the most powerful institution in Luxembourg.

The abbey is currently a popular tourist attraction mostly on account of an annual dancing procession that is held every Whit Tuesday. Tens of thousands of tourists, day-trippers, pilgrims, and clergy visit Echternach to witness or participate in the traditional ceremony.

History

Willibrord

Located by the River Sauer, Echternach had originally been the site of a 1st-century Roman villa. By the 6th century, the estate had been passed to the see of Trier, who constructed a small monastery on the estate. In 698, Irmina of Oeren granted the Northumbrian missionary Willibrord, Bishop of Utrecht, land at Echternach to build a larger monastery, appointing Willibrord as abbot. In part, the choice was due to Willibrord's reputation as a talented proselytiser (he is known as the Apostle to the Frisians).

Willibrord opened the first church at Echternach in 700 with financial backing from Pepin of Herstal. Pepin's son, Charles Martel, founder of the Carolingian dynasty, had his son Pepin the Short baptised at Echternach in 714. In addition to Carolingian support, Willibrord's abbey at Echternach had the backing of Wilfrid, with whom he had served at Ripon. Willibrord secured the backing of many Irish monks, who would become part of the first settlement at Echternach.

Willibrord spent much time at Echternach, and died there in 739. Willibrord was buried in the oratory, which soon became a place of pilgrimage, particularly after he was canonised. In 751, Pepin declared the Abbey of Echternach a 'royal abbey', and granted it immunity. It became later an Imperial Abbey.

Carolingian Renaissance

Beornrad, the third abbot of Echternach, was a great favourite of Charlemagne, and was promoted to Archbishop of Sens in 785. When Beornrad died, in 797, Charlemagne took direct control of the abbey for a year.

The work of the monks at the abbey was heavily influenced by Willibrord's roots in Northumbria and Ireland, where a great emphasis was put on codices, and Echternach developed one of the most important scriptoria in the Frankish Empire. The abbey at Echternach produced four gospels (in order of production): the Augsburg Gospels, Maaseyck Gospels, Trier Gospels, and the Freiburg Gospel Book Fragment.

Manuscripts produced at Echternach are known to have been in both insular and Roman half uncial script. As Echternach was so prolific, and enjoyed the patronage of Pepin the Short and Charlemagne, it played a crucial role in the development of the early Carolingian Renaissance. Seeing the work of the abbey at Echternach at taming the native German script, and eager to further the reform, Charlemagne sent for Alcuin, to establish a scriptorium at the court in Aachen. Alcuin synthesised the two styles into the standard Carolingian minuscule, which predominated for the next four centuries.

At the start of the ninth century, a larger, Carolingian-style church was constructed, but it was destroyed in a fire some 200 years later. The abbey, as it enjoyed power, both spiritual and temporal. However, this was all guaranteed only by the Carolingians. When the authority of the centralised Frankish state collapsed during the civil wars under Louis the Pious, so too did the power of the abbey. In 847, the Benedictine monks were ejected and replaced by lay-abbots.

Return of the Benedictine monks

The fortunes of the abbey continued to vary with the fortunes of the Holy Roman Empire. When Otto the Great reunited the Empire, he sought to rejuvenate the intellectual and religious life of his dominions, including Echternach. In 971, he restored the Benedictines to Echternach with forty monks of that order from Trier. The abbey entered a second Golden Age, as it once again became one of northern Europe's most influential abbeys. In 1031, a new Romanesque church was consecrated.

The Codex Aureus of Echternach, an important surviving codex written entirely in gold ink was produced here in the 11th century. The so-called Emperor's Bible and the Golden Gospels of Henry III were also produced in Echternach at this time, when production of books at the scriptorium peaked.

The modern abbey

Around the middle of the 19th century, the choir began to crumble and it was feared that it might collapse completely. For this reason, an association was founded in 1862 for the reconstruction of the church (the Kirchbauverein). The rebuilding in a neo-roman style was completed in 1868, and the abbey was re-consecrated.

In recognition of its importance as a national centre of pilgrimage to St. Willibrord, Pope Pius XII granted the abbey the status of minor basilica in 1939.

Part of the basilica was blasted by retreating German Wehrmacht troops on December 26th 1944, necessitating another reconstruction - its sixth in 14 centuries - in the original Roman style. The facade is a nod to the basilica of Paray-le-Monial. The building was again re-consecrated in 1953, though the 8th-century crypt has survived throughout with no major damage.

Chronology of churches

There have been six churches built on the site at Echternach:

• Unknown - 700: Original pre-abbey church
• 700 - c. 800: Merovingian church
• c. 800 - 1016: Carolingian church
• 1031 - 1797: Original Romanesque basilica
• 1862 - 1944: Reconstructed basilica
• 1953–present day: Modern basilica

Dancing procession

Despite the long history of the abbey and the city, Echternach is best known today for its traditional dancing procession, held around the town of Echternach. It is held every Whit Tuesday in honour of Saint Willibrord, and is the last such traditional dancing procession in Europe. The event draws to Echternach tens of thousands of visitors a year, be they pilgrims or tourists, who either participate or observe the quaint and distinctive procession.

Library

On 9 February 2010 Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, published a two-volume catalogue of the manuscripts in the library on behalf of the Bibliothèque nationale de Luxembourg.

List of abbots

• Willibrord (698–739)
• Adalbert (739–775)
• Beornrad (775–797)
• Hetti (before 838 – 27 May 847)
• Reginar (864–870), lay abbot
• Adalhard I (bis 870), lay abbot
• Karlmann (874–876)
• Adalhard II (until 890), lay abbot
• Hermann I (926–949), lay abbot
• Siegfried I (c. 950), lay abbot
• Ravanger (973–1007)
• Urold (1007–1027)
• Humbert (1028–1051)
• Reginbert (1051–1081)
• Thiofrid (1081–1110)
• Godfried I (1122–1155)
• Ludwig (1173–1181)
• Godfried II (1181–1210)
• Bartholomäus von Esch (1210–1231)
• Richard I (1270–1296 or 1280–1297)
• Heinrich von Schönecken (1298–1324)
• Theoderich von Are (1329–1341)
• Johannes [John I] von Winningen (1341–1353)
• Jean [John II] de Neuville (1353–1357)
• Wilhelm von Kerpen (1358–1374)
• Hertwin von Waldeck (1375–1377)
• Philipp von Homburg (1377–1378)
• Wirich von Adenbach (1378–1400)
• Peter I Beissel von Gymnich (1400–1412)
• Nikolaus von Gymnich (1412–1418)
• Pierre [Peter II] de Hubines (1418–1438)
• Winand von Gluwel (1438–1465)
• Colin Plick von Oirwick (1465–1476)
• Francis Plick von Oirwick (1476–1477)
• Burchard Poszwin von Neuerburg (1490–1506)
• Robert von Monreal (1506–1539)
• Matthias von Lutzerath (1539)
• Godfried III von Aspremont (1540–1562)
• Antonius Hovaeus Haecmundanus (1563 – 8 October 1568)
• Martin Maas (1569–1585)
• Jean [John III] Glatz (1586–1594)
• Johannes [John IV] Bertelius (1595 – 19 June 1607)
• Pierre [Peter III] Richardot (1607–1628)
• Peter IV Fisch von Rosport (1628 – 15 March 1657)
• Richard II Paschasius (1657–1667)
• Philippe de la Neufforge (1667 – 10 September 1684)
• Willibrord Hotton (1684–1693)
• Benoît Zender (1694–1717)
• Matthias Hartz (1717–1728)
• Grégoire Schouppe (1728 – 19 July 1751)
• Michael Hormann (1751–1775)
• Emmanuel Limpach (1775 – 6 September 1793)

Burials

• Saint Willibrord
• Henry IV, Count of Luxembourg

See also

• List of Carolingian monasteries
• Giant Bible of Echternach
• Codex Aureus of Echternach
• Echternach Gospels

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Abbey of Echternach, Abbey of (also Epternach, Lat. Epternacensis), a Benedictine monastery in the town of that name, in the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg and the Diocese of Trier. It was founded in 698 by St. Willibrord, an English monk of Ripon, who became the Apostle of Friesland and first Bishop of Utrecht. Although a bishop, he ruled the monastery as abbot until his death in 739. The abbey stood near Tier on land given him for the purpose by St. Irmine, Abbess of Oeren and daughter of Dagobert II. It had many royal and other benefactors, including Pepin and Charlemagne, who conferred upon it great privileges. In 859 the monks were displaced by secular canons, as was so often the case with the early monasteries, but in 971 Emperor Otho I restored the Benedictine life there, bringing forty monks thither from the great Abbey of St. Maximin at Trier, one of whom, Ravanger by name, was made abbot. The monastery became very celebrated and was, during the Middle Ages, one of the most important in Northern Europe. It continued to flourish until the French Revolution, when it was suppressed, and the monks dispersed. The buildings put up by St. Willibrord were burnt down in 1017, and a new abbey was then erected. The church was Romanesque in style, but Gothic additions and alterations were made in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. In 1797 it was sold and became a pottery manufactory, but in 1861 it was reacquired by the townspeople, through whose generosity and devotion it was restored and made a parish church. The reconsecration took place with great solemnity in 1868, and since that date the work of restoration and decoration has continued steadily. It is popularly called "the cathedral", though not the seat of a bishop. The conventual buildings, originally erected in 1017-31, have been frequently rebuilt and added to, and they were entirely modernized in 1732. At the suppression they became State property and have for many years served as barracks. The library was noted for a number of precious MSS. of very early date which it contained; some of them are now in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris.

The Dancing Procession.—The Abbey of Echternach owes much of its fame, especially in modern times, to the curious "dancing procession" which takes place annually on Whit Tuesday, in honor of St. Willibrord. The cult of the saint may be traced back almost to the date of his death, and the stream of pilgrims to his tomb in the abbey church has never ceased. The Emperors Lothair I, Conrad, and Maximilian may be numbered amongst them. The tomb stands before the high altar, and has been recently entirely renewed. On it is a recumbent effigy of the saint, and amongst other relics preserved there are a mitre, crosier, and chasuble said to have been used by him. The origin of the procession cannot be stated with certainty. Authentic documents of the fifteenth century speak of it as a regular and recognized custom at that time, but for earlier evidence there is only tradition to depend upon. The legend is that in 1347, when a pestilence raged amongst the cattle of the neighborhood, the symptoms of which were a kind of trembling or nervous shaking followed by speedy death, the people thought that by imitating these symptoms, more or less, whilst imploring the intercession of St. Willibrord, the evil might be stayed. The desired result was obtained, and so the dancing procession to the saint's tomb became an annual ceremony. Nowadays it is made an act of expiation and penance on behalf of afflicted relations and especially in order to avert epilepsy, St. Vitus's dance, convulsions, and all nervous diseases. The function commences at nine o'clock in the morning at the bridge over the Sure, with a sermon by the parish priest (formerly the abbot of the monastery); after this the procession moves towards the basilica, through the chief streets of the town, a distance of about 11 kilometers. Three steps forward are taken, then two back, so that five steps are required in order to advance one pace. The result is that it is well after midday before the last of the dancers has reached the church. They go four or five abreast, holding each other by the hand or arm. Many bands accompany them, playing a traditional melody which has been handed down for centuries. A large number of priests and religious also accompany the procession and not infrequently there are several bishops as well. On arrival at the church, the dance is continued around the tomb of St. Willibrord, when litanies and prayers in his honor are recited, and the whole concludes with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Though curious and even somewhat ludicrous, the people perform it in all seriousness and as a true act of devotion. It usually attracts to Echternach a great concourse of tourists as well as pilgrims, and as many as ten thousand people generally take part in it. The procession took place annually without intermission until 1777. Then, on account of some abuses that had crept in, the music and dancing were forbidden by the Archbishop of Trier, and in 1786 Joseph II abolished the procession altogether. Attempts were made to revive it ten years later but the French Revolution effectually prevented it. It was recommenced, however, in 1802 and has continued ever since. In 1826 the Government tried to change the day to a Sunday, but since 1830 it has always taken place on Whit Tuesday, as formerly.

G. CYPRIAN ALSTON